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This new series of 19 cartoon shorts will begin rolling out FRIDAY, JUNE 28 on Disney Channel, Disney.com and WATCH Disney Channel, among other platforms. An online game, “Mickey Delivery Dash,” is also debuting today on Disney.com. The announcement was made today by Gary Marsh, president and chief creative officer, Disney Channels Worldwide.

Regarding the new cartoon shorts, Marsh said, “By bringing Mickey’s comedic adventures to life with vitality, humor, inventiveness and charm, the entire Disney Television Animation team of artists, animators and directors have worked to capture the essence of what Walt Disney himself created 85 years ago.”

Since his creation in 1928, Mickey Mouse has continued to be a timeless favorite, a character that embodies joy, innocence and impishness. While the direction and pacing of the new “Mickey Mouse” cartoon shorts are fresh and contemporary, they are at the same time homage to the art direction and storytelling of Walt and his animators in the 1920s and ’30s.

Emmy Award-winning artist and director Paul Rudish is the executive producer and director. Aaron Springer and Clay Morrow are directors, and Joseph Holt is the art director. The series is produced under the supervision of senior vice presidents Eric Coleman and Lisa Salamone at Disney Television Animation.

With the slapstick feel of classic Mickey Mouse, the series of cartoon shorts presents Mickey in a broad range of humorous situations that showcase his pluck and rascality, along with his long-beloved charm and good heartedness. Each cartoon short finds Mickey in a different contemporary setting including Santa Monica, New York, Paris, Beijing, Tokyo, Venice and the Alps, facing a silly situation, a quick complication and an escalation of physical and visual gags. The stories also feature genuine heartfelt and heroic moments as Mickey explores and experiences life with his comical partners: Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy, and Pluto.

Geared towards kids age 6-14 and families, and produced in 2D animation, the design esthetic for the “Mickey Mouse” cartoon shorts reaches back almost 80 years and borrows reverentially from the bold style of his 1930s design, but not before adding a few contemporary touches. Designs for other characters have a similar approach, favoring a “rubber-hose” cartoon style for more exaggerated animation. Background designs closely reflect the graphic design sense of 1950s and 1960s Disney cartoons. For those true eagle-eyed Disney fans, the production team has also included the occasional homage to other icons from the storied Disney heritage.

In the first cartoon short, “Croissant de Triomphe,” Mickey must deliver croissants to Minnie’s cafe, battling street traffic and other Parisian obstacles along the way. Stories in the upcoming cartoon shorts include: “Yodelberg” — Mickey longs to visit Minnie atop her mountaintop chalet but quickly realizes that the threat of avalanche has made the trek up the mountain more challenging than usual. In “No Service,” Mickey and Donald try to buy lunch from a beachside snack shack but are unceremoniously turned down because of the classic “No shirt, no shoes, no service” admonition (of course, Mickey doesn’t wear a shirt and Donald doesn’t wear shoes!).

Disney President and CEO Bob Iger discussed the new Mickey Mouse cartoons on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Tuesday. Iger also emphasized the role of Disney history in offering new Mickey Mouse cartoons:

“We thought that over time Mickey might have lost some of those impish or innocent qualities, some of that vitality that people once saw in him. And so we decided to brig him back – not that he’s really, truly gone away – but hearkening back to what Walt did with a collection of new shorts that depict him in the ways that we thought people love the most.”

Serving as executive producer for Disney's new 2D "Mickey Mouse" shorts project is animation veteran Paul Rudish. Who was just thrilled when Disney Television Animation reached out and gave him the opportunity to be part of this Mickey Mouse makeover. Which seeks to restore to this much-beloved cartoon character some of the playful qualities that moviegoers used to see back in the late 1920s / early 1930s.

"As a kid growing up in small-town Missouri, the legend of Walt Disney was always an inspiration to me, in particular, his early character of Mickey Mouse. I felt Mickey was an embodiment of Walt's and Ub's (Iwerks) own inventiveness, humor, and resilience, qualities that resonated with audiences in the 1930's," Rudish stated. "In starting a new chapter of the Mickey Mouse legacy, I am honored to find myself on the path laid by artists I've admired and hope to re-imbue Mickey with those classic qualities that I believe still resonate with audiences today."

In B4 TsWade2 comes praising like a lunatic.

In B4 TsWade2 comes praising like a lunatic.

I wish I could, but right now I'm little under the weather. I don't know if that's a mean joke, but I'll take that as a compliment.

Well, what could I say?

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However. I'm happy to tell you that the studio is working on hand-drawn shorts. But that's a couple of clicks distant from a hand-drawn feature.